In pursuit of its mandate to secure and protect the data of Nigerians and legal residents in the country, the National Information Management Commission (NIMC) has introduced tokenisation as a measure of protecting NIN holders from divulging their national identification number (NIN) for every personal data-related transaction.

The data management body revealed this on Wednesday via a public notice seen by FIJ.

Explaining tokenisation, the commission said it is a safe means of presenting the NIN in a format that could prevent seeding, cloning and duplication, and safeguard the digital identities of Nigerians as mandated by the NIMC Act 23 2007.

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Tokens will be digitally generated by NIN holders anytime they are required to provide their numbers. These encrypted virtual numbers will be presented in a coded format as against the original 11-digit NIN.

According to the notice, this latest development is to eliminate the practice of storing people’s information by service providers who then use same without holder’s privacy.

With tokenisation, NIMC said, third parties cannot store, use or verify NIN holders’ information without their consent. It further said this digital code is time-bound and not reusable.

On how to get tokens, the data regulator said its mobile app is available on both Google Playstore, IOS or Apple Store to get started. Tokens can also be generated by dialing *346*3*NIN*Enterprise Code# on the phone without connecting to the internet.

The system requires NIN holders to input an enterprise code, which is to be given to them by licensed public or private entities at the point of carrying out transactions.

HOW TO GET AN ENTERPRISE CODE

An NIN holder is to request for the code by first selecting ‘Search Approved Enterprises’ and then an appropriate service provider.

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Following that, insert the service provider’s code by clicking ‘Input Enterprise Short Code’. After completing this, generate vNIN for verification purposes.

The agency added that those who already have access to a service provider’s QR code can click ‘Scan Enterprise QR Code’ to scan QR code made available by the service company to generate a virtual NIN for each transaction.